The Chiefs travelled down the 401 on Thursday night to take on the 2nd place Kitchener Rangers. The Rangers had recently played a tough game against Lambton losing 6-4 but earned two points against London Green 3-1. The Chiefs were down 4 men due to injuries including Captain and scoring leader Brook Hiddink #8. They didn’t even have the usual AP call ups from the ’97 Chiefs Konecny & Mayo since they were also injured. Despite the deck being heavily stacked against them, the Chiefs took their depleted 13-man roster down the road to the Activa Sports Complex.
The Chief’s battled hard and played a defensive “road game”. With only 1 penalty called against either team the first two periods, there was a lot of neutral zone play. The Rangers went up 1-0 in the first period on a screen shot from the slot. The Chief’s continued to fight man to man in the neutral zone. Goalie Dan Black #1 turned aside a total of 28 shots including several glove saves. The “lefty” goaltender limited rebounds and second-chances, surrendering only a single goal and kept the game within reach. The Chiefs had an opportunity with a 5 on 3 late in the game but were unable to capitalize. The Rangers scored an empty netter with 33 seconds remaining to win by a final score of 2-0. The Chiefs while unable to score on the Rangers did limit this high scoring team to a single goal for almost the entire game. After scoring a total of 7 goals the previous two games, the Chiefs did an excellent job shutting this offensive powerhouse down in their home rink. The Chief’s defence was aggressive on the puck and kept most of the shots to the outside allowing Goaltender Black #1 to see the pucks. The aggressive defence never gave up a single odd man rush or breakaway, adding to the Ranger’s frustration.
The Chief’s look forward to having most of their players back on the bench for their next game in Sarnia on Tuesday Oct 25. Lambton has 3 scorers in the top 10 and are currently ranked #17 in Ontario.